Celebrities protest plan for Goshute N-dump

WASHINGTON — A group of entertainers and American Indian activists Monday gathered at a Capitol Hill briefing with Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, criticizing plans to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation, 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

Celebrities, including actor James Cromwell, who was in such movies as "The Longest Yard," "Babe" and "L.A. Confidential," and singer Ani DiFranco and Indigo Girls members Emily Saliers and Amy Ray, urged Congress not to expand nuclear power or radioactive dumps on native land.

Private Fuel Storage, a group of electric utilities, is seeking to store 44,000 tons of waste on the reservation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to make a final decision soon on the proposal.

The artists Monday said the United States should focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency instead of nuclear power. They were scheduled to meet with senators after the briefing to ask them to oppose an energy bill that would spend billions of dollars on nuclear power projects.